Hidden Villages

Penelope is in the land of rugged coastal communities and cliff-edge fishing villages, but also of huge numbers of holiday makers. She visits the most exposed theatre in the country and Fowey Harbour.

The actress learns about life in the renowned landscape of Cumbria. The wonder of the Lake District cannot be ignored, but from Morecambe Bay to the Pennines, Penny finds there is much more to life in a Cumbrian village than tourists and tea shops, and all of it owes a great deal to the dramatic local geography.

Penelope travels through Royal Deeside, a remote part of Aberdeenshire. It’s a land of enormous estates served by tiny communities. Penelope visits the few villages that exist and explores how important Queen Victoria was in shaping modern Deeside.

In the final episode of the series, Penelope is in East Sussex and Kent - a rural, unspoilt swath of the busy south-east that never ceases to surprise and impress. She finds a remarkable hidden village that hasn’t changed in almost a century, discovers the origins of the English Country Garden and sees a war memorial which was helped to be established by Rudyard Kipling.